THE FIRST PITCH
Winners of four straight and five of six, the Texas A&M -
Corpus Christi baseball team takes on conference foe McNeese State
for a three-game series at Whataburger Field this weekend. The
Islanders come in with a 16-8 overall record (3-3 Southland), while
McNeese sits at 13-9 (4-2).

Texas A&M - Corpus Christi is coming off a 7-1 win over UT
Brownsville on Tuesday in which nine different pitchers combined to
allow six hits (all singles) and one run. The Islanders offense was
buoyed by Trey
Hernandez and Caleb
Marx, who each hit a home run and had three RBI, and Jacob
Perales, who had two hits to raise his team-leading average to
.410 on the season. Prior to the game against UTB/TSC, the
Islanders swept a weekend series at Nicholls over the weekend and
scored 14 runs in the ninth inning of those three games.

McNeese has had a pair of impressive conference weekends, taking
two of three at home against Northwestern State and on the road at
Southeastern Louisiana to start out with a 4-2 record. McNeese has
also split two games with Houston and two at Arkansas this year.
The Cowboys are coming off a 10-8 win over Southern on Wednesday
night in Lake Charles.

THE ALL-TIME SERIES
The Islanders are 3-9 all-time against the Cowboys, all since
joining the Southland Conference. McNeese has won four in a row
against the Islanders, including a three-game sweep last year in
Lake Charles. Texas A&M - Corpus Christi has a 1-5 record
against McNeese in the Coastal Bend.

SCOUTING THE COWBOYS
McNeese State enters this weekend with a 13-9 record and a 4-2
mark in conference play. In addition to series wins over
Northwestern State and Southeastern Louisiana, the Cowboys have
split two-game series with Houston and Arkansas this season.

The Cowboys boast an impressive offense that has a .293 average
and has scored 147 runs on the season. Lee Orr leads the way with a
.375 mark and 11 doubles, while Renny Weber is also hitting
.375.

On the mound, the Cowboys have a collective 4.98 ERA. Zach
Butler is the top starter with a 3.18 ERA and 31 punchouts in 34
innings, while relievers Jordan Legros (0.63) and John Tatum (1.17)
have posted strong numbers out of the pen.

THE RIGHTY STICK
Somewhat overshadowed by Matt
Holland, Trey
Hernandez and Week 1 Southland Conference Hitter of the Week Chris
Vergne, righty Jacob
Perales has arguably been the team's best hitter in the first
24 games. The Moody High alum leads the team with a .410 average
and 27 RBI to go along with three home runs.

Perales' performance last week earned him SLC honorable mention.
The senior hit .429 with 11 RBI in five games, including eight RBI
in the series at Nicholls. His best game of the season saw him go
3-for-5 with five RBI to lead the Islanders in Saturday's 12-1
rout. The Corpus Christi native now has 19 career home runs to
place him sixth in Islanders lore.

RATINGS BLITZ
With a 16-8 start, the Islanders are off to their best opening
since 2003. That has led to impressive numbers in the Ratings
Percentage Index according to RPI gurus Warren Nolan and Boyd
Nation. The Islanders opened the week 50th in Nolan's calculations
and 49th according to Boyd's World.

Texas A&M - Corpus Christi is 3-5 against teams in the top
50 of the RPI, with wins over Texas (20), Oregon State (23) and
Texas Tech (47). Only one of the Islanders' defeats has come at the
hands of a team outside the top 80, with that to preseason top-10
squad Connecticut.

CAMPBELL'S COMPOSURE
Coming into the 2011 campaign, senior Ian
Campbell's role on the team was expected to be a bullpen
pitcher who provided depth to the staff. But his performance as of
late has earned him a spot in the weekend rotation.

In eight appearances, including five starts, Campbell has a 3-1
record and a staff-leading 3.00 ERA. The senior, who throws four
pitches for strikes, has allowed less than one hit per inning. Far
more impressive have been his 33 strikeouts to just 10 walks over
36 frames on the season. He earned honorable mention from the
Southland after going seven innings and scattering four hits on
Saturday against Nicholls.

The soft-spoken Glendale, Ariz., native played two years at
Yavapai Junior College before transfering to the Island University
prior to the 2010 season. He went 3-5 with an 8.17 ERA in 2010 for
the Islanders.

SWEEP EMOTION
With a three-game sweep of Nicholls, the Islanders earned their
first conference sweep of the 2011 season and first since 2008,
when they posted a road sweep at Stephen F. Austin in April of that
season. The Islanders have already won as many road games in
conference play as they did a year ago (three) and have nearly
doubled their overall road output with nine wins (five in
2010).

SLAM CYCLE
Heading into the season, the coaching staff identified Matt
Holland as the hottest hitter on the team, and he has not
disappointed to this juncture. Holland, who leads the conference in
hits, is in the Southland's top 10 in average, doubles, triples and
total bases on the year.

Over the weekend at Nicholls, he quietly hit .400 with a pair of
runs and a pair of RBI on the weekend. He hit three of the
Islanders' five doubles, with Weston
Montgomery delivering the other two. He also took one for the
team when it counted on Friday, as he was hit by a pitch while
behind in the count to load the bases en route to putting the
Islanders on top.

But his performance against Texas Tech on March 12 was by far
his most impressive of the season. The senior went 4-for- 6 and hit
for the Islanders' first cycle of the season and the first since Jacob
Perales turned the trick against UTPA last year. Needing a
longball to complete the trick with two down in the ninth and the
bases loaded, Holland ripped a 2-0 pitch over the wall in right for
a grand slam.

NINTH INNING MAGIC
The Islanders wound up with a series sweep at Nicholls, but the
results could have been far different if it hadn't been for some
ninth-inning heroics by the team's bats.

Down 4-3 on Friday, Texas A&M - Corpus Christi scored four
in the top of the ninth to register the victory. Though the outcome
was not in doubt, the Islanders added four more on Saturday in a
12-1 win. Then on Sunday, with the score knotted up at 2-2, the
Islanders put a six-spot on the board to lift them to an 8-3
victory.

On the series, the Islanders scored 14 runs in the ninth inning,
despite the fact that they had tallied just eight in the ninth in
the prior 20 games.